Safety harness device



SAFETY HARNESS DEVICE 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed Sept. 6, 1955 Nov.20, 1962 c. E. CUSHMAN ETAL 3,064,920:

SAFETY HARNESS DEVICE Original Filed Sept. 6, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet; 2

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SAFETY HARNESS DEVICE Original Filed Sept. 6, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 5.

Uited States Patent @filice 3,054,920 Patented Nov. 20, 1962 3,064,920SAFETY HARNESS DEVICE Clifford E. Cushman, Burbank, and Robert J.Wrighton, Tarzana, Calif., assignors, by mesne assignments, to PacificScientific Aeroproducts, Glendale, Calif, a corporation of CaliforniaOriginal application Sept. 6, 1955, Ser. No. 532,631, new Patent No.2,992,790, dated July 18, 1961. Divided and this appiication July 14,1958, Ser. No. 751,590

Claims. (Cl. 242--107.4)

This invention relates, in general, to safety harness devices for use inprotecting passengers in moving vehicles and more particularly to novelimprovements in ineria-operated safety devices utilized to automaticallylock passengers in their seats during crashes and the like.

There is disclosed in United States patent application Serial No.396,038, now US. Patent No. 2,845,234 a novel inertia-operated safetydevice of the type to which the present invention relates. The presentapplication is a division of US. patent application Serial No. 532,631,now US. Patent No. 2,992,790, filed September 6, 1955, by the sameinventors. The object of the present invention is to provide an improvedinertia-operated safety device constructed so as to insure safer, moredependable operation under all types of extreme operating conditions.

One feature of the present invention is the provision of novel apparatusfor preventing the safety device from functioning to automaticallylock-up the cable reel or harness spool during movement of the cable orstraps in the wind-up direction.

This and other features of this invention will become apparent after aperusal of the following description of the embodiments of thisinvention disclosed in the drawings wherein,

FIG. 1 is a front elevation view partly in longitudinal section of aharness-spool type of safety device in which the novel apparatus of thisinvention may be incorporated.

FIG. 2 is a cross-section view taken along section line 2-2 in FIG. 1showing an internal stop device.

FIG. 3 is another cross-section view taken through FIG. 1 along sectionline 3-3 disclosing structure for preventing false unlocking duringwind-up,

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a portion of the apparatus shown in FIG. 3and encircled by the dash-dot lines 44.

FIGS. 5 and 5A are section views taken through FIG. 4 along section line55 showing the apparatus in two different operating positions,

FIG. 6 is a cross-section view of a cable-type inertia safety deviceemploying a novel apparatus for preventing false automatic cable reellocking during wind-up of the cable,

FIG. 7 is a cross-section view of a portion of the safety reel devicetaken at approximately a 90 angle to the section view of FIG. 6,

. FIG. 8 is a top elevation view with parts broken away of the apparatusof FIG. 7,

FIG. 9 is a cut-away view of another cable-type safety device employinga different means for preventing false automatic cable reel locking,during wind-up than that shown in FIG. 6, and

FIG. 10 is a section view of a portion of FIG. 9 taken along sectionline 1010.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 through 5A, there is shown an inertia-operateddevice of the harness-spool type especially adapted for use by pilots inaircraft. This safety device is of the type where the harness strap orWeb which passes over the pilots body and serves to hold the pilotwithin his seat is wound directly on an elongated spool. Although thesafety device shown in FIGS. 1 through 5A does not incorporate the novelinvention of this divisional application, which is shown in differentforms in FIGS. 6 through 10, these FIGS. 1 through 5A serve to describethe general apparatus in which the invention may be embodied. Theharness spool or drum 1 is fixedly secured, as by a key and key-wayarrangement, to an elongated, hollow cylindrical shaft 2 which isrotatably mounted on the left-hand side in a bearing portion 3 of a mainhousing section 4 and on the right-hand side in a bearing member 5. Thebearing member 5 is fixedly secured as by screws 6 within one end of ahollow cylindrical housing 7, the other end of which is secured as byscrews 8 to main housing section 9 which, in turn, is secured to themain housing section 4 as by screws 11. The two tension members orharness straps 12 and 13 which pass over the two shoulders of the pilotare secured at their inner ends to the spool in a manner described inthe parent application, Serial No. 532,631. This safety device ismounted on the pilots seat by means of brackets 6, 8, 10 and screws andbolts 10 and 7'.

A pin 19 serves to anchor one end of a wind-up coil spring 21 in thespool 1, the other end of spring 21 being anchored by a pin 22 in thebearing member 5. This coil spring is tensioned so as to urge the spool1 inthe harness wind-up direction.

An annular inertia member 23 is rotatably mounted on the left-hand endof the spool 1, recesses 24 in the member 23 accommodating integral lugs25 on the spool end. An annular retainer ring 26 and screws 27 areutilized to hold the inertia member 23 on the spool, the lugs 25limiting the distance of rotation of the inertia member relative to thespool to a very short arc. Drive link 28 is pivotally mounted at 29 onthe spool 1, the drive link extending through an opening 31 into thehollow shaft 2 Where it engages a drum shaft 32, the flanged edge 33 ofwhich rides on an annular support member 34 which is fixedly secured inthe shaft 2. The drum shaft 32, 33 is held in place by a spring-loadedrocker arm 35 which is springtensioned in a clockwise direction asviewed in FIG. 1 around a pivot pin 36. The other end of rocker arm 35carries a pin 37 which engages a sear 38 pivotally mounted at 38 (FIG.3), the pivoted sear serving as a trigger for a locking pawl 39.

To describe the operation of that part of the apparatus heretoforementioned, as the Webbing 12 and 13 is pulled off of the spool inresponse to movements of the pilots body and is rewound on the spool bythe rotation of the spool in response to the tension of wind-up spring21, the inertia member 23 tends to resist rotation due to its weight. Inthe wind-up direction, the lug 25 drives the inertia member, while inthe unwind direction the inertia member is driven by means of drive link28. During feed out of the web 12, 13 at less than a predeterminedacceleration, the inertia member rotates with the spool. When the pullexceeds such value of acceleration, the inertia member tends to remainstationary when the spool rotates, thus causing link 28 to pivot and tipthe drum shaft 32 which, in turn, pivots arm 35 to trigger the sear 38and release pawl 39. Pawl 39, tensioned by the pawl spring 56, pivots toengage the ratchet teeth 41 located in the periphery of the inertiamember. The spool is restrained from further rotation in the unwinddirection butthe pawl will ratchet over the ratchet. teeth to permit thespool to rotate in the wind-up direction. Release from the lockedcondition is accomplished by pulling the manual control cable 42, thetermination 42 engaging and returning pawl 39 to its normal positionwhere it is held triggered by sear 38, after which the termination 42 isreturned to its normal position as shown in FIG. 3. The spool may bemanually locked by pulling termination 42 away from the locking pawl 40so that pawl 40 may rotateand engage the ratchet teeth 41.

The novel means 43, 44, 45, 46 and 26', incorporated for providing apositive internal stop for the spool in the wind-up direction, the novelmeans 47, 48, 49, 51, 51 52, and 53, incorporated for at times forceablywinding up the harness 12, and the novel means 57, 58, 59, 59, 61 and62, for preventing rebound of the pawl 39 and false unlocking, aredescribed, and claimed in the parent application and will not be furtherdescribed herein.

It is understood that this safety device works on the principle that theinertia member 23 tends to remain stationary when an acceleration of theharness reel 1 is produced, the rotational movement of the harness reelrelative to the inertia member resulting in the automatic locking of theharness. If the harness is reeled in at excessive speeds, theinertia-member will tend to keep rotating when the harness reel or spoolis brought to a sudden stop by a retarding force acting on the cable.This relative rotation between inertia-member and spool may result inautomatic locking when it is not desired. It is very seldom that theharness reel is reeled in fast enough and brought to such a sudden haltso as to cause this undesirable locking; however, to completelyeliminate this false locking, one form of novel anti-locking apparatusis shown in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 and another form in FIGS. 9'and 10.

FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 illustrate this novel anti-locking feature in aninertia-operated safety device of the cable reel type, that is, wherethe safety straps or harness are coupled to a cable or similar tensionmember 60, the cable in turn being wound on a cable reel 63 in thesafety device. It will be noted from FIG. 6 that this cable type ofsafety device is considerably shorter than the elongated spool but theirstructure and functioning are very similar. The novel forms of thisanti-lock invention may be incorporated in either spool or reel type ofsafety device. The cable reel type of device, more fully described inthe previously cited patent application, Serial No. 396,038, includesthe rotatably mounted cable reel 63 and inertiamember 64, spiral wind-upspring 65, drive link 66, rocker arm 67 and drum shaft 67. Theanti-locking structure, effective only during rotation of the cable reelin the wind-up direction, comprises an annular, slightly dish-shapeddrive disk 68 mounted at its outer periphery 68' around the flange 69 ofthe cable reel 63, with its inner peripheral edge 71 tensioned againstthe inner surface of the reel housing or casing 72. A U-shaped stopchannel 73 (FIGS. 7 and 8) is securely affixed to the edge of the disk68 by rivets 74 and 75, rivet 74 being flush with the bottom of channelstop 73 while rivet 75 is provided with a high head. The channel stop 73islocated in a substantially rectangular opening 76 in the reel housingor cover assembly 72, the distance of movement of the channel stop 73and thus of disk 68 being limited by the width of opening 76. As viewedin FIG. 8, as the cable reel rotates in the unwind or reel outdirection, the disk 68, due to its frictional bearing against the cablereel flange 69, rotates with the reel through a small arc until thechannel stop 73 engages the top edge of opening 76. When the cable reelstarts back in the wind-up or reel in direction, the channel stop 73moves until it hits against the lower edge of opening 76. Thus, thechannel stop 73 is limited to a short movement between the twopositions. In the wind-up position, thehigh head of rivet 75 ispositioned directly under an adjustment screw 77 located in the rockerarm 67, while in the unwind position, the high head rivet 75 is out fromunder the screw 77. It can thus be seen that if the drum shaft 67'raises the right-hand end (as viewed in FIG. 7) of the rocker arm 67 inresponse to a relative rotation be tween the inertia-member and cablereel during unwinding of the cable, the rocker arm 67 will pivot and, atits left-hand end, transmit a pivotal movement to the associated sear(not shown but similar to sear 38) whereby the locking pawl is released.However, if the right-hand end of rocker arm 67 is raised during thewind-up of the cable reel, the high head rivet 75 will be positionedunder the adjustment screw 77 and will prevent the left-hand end ofrocker arm 67 from moving to release the locking pawl. The rocker arm 67is made flexible to permit a small degree of bending.

In actual use of this novel anti-locking device, approximately 4; ofcable movement is needed to move the channel stop 73 from one positionto the other while a minimum of A1 of cable travel is needed to initiatea locking movement of the rocker arm 67. It therefore follows that thestop 73 will always be positioned properly to insure desired operation.

Another novel structure for preventing automatic locking during wind-upat excessive accelerations is shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 as utilized on acable reel type of structure similar to that shown in FIG. 6. A lockingdog 78 is pivotally mounted at 78 on an arm 79 which is fixedly securedas by rivets 81 on the annular inertia member 82, the dog 78 having anextension arm 83 with a button 84 secured on the end. The button 8.4bears with a frictional force against the inside surface of the housing85 such that rotation of the inertia member 82 in the cable unwinddirection pivots the dog 78 counter-clockwise (looking at FIG. 9) toprevent the dog from interfering with the normal relative rotationbetween the cable reel 86 and inertia member 82 during cable unwindingand automatic lockup. However, rotation of the inertia member 79 in thecable wind-up direction causes the button 84 to drag on the surface of85 and dog 78 pivots into the space between the lug 87 on the cable reel86 and the inertia member 82 to thereby prevent any relative rotationalmovement between the cable reel and the inertia member.

Since many changes could be made in the above construction and manyapparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be madewithout departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all mattercontained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawingsshall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What is claimed is:

l. A safety device comprising a tension member, a reel rotatably mountedin said device adapted to rotate in one direction to wind up saidtension member and in the other direction to unwind the tension member,an inertia member rotatably mounted in said device, said inertia memberrotating in unison with said reel during rotation thereof in the unwinddirection below a predetermined acceleration, said reel rotatingrelative to said inertia member during rotation of said reel above thepredetermined acceleration, means operated in response to the relativerotation between the reel and inertia member for stopping rotation ofsaid reel in the unwind direction, means in said device operable to oneposition in response to movement of the tension member in a wind-updirection on the reel and to a second position in response to movementof the tension member in an unwind direction from the reel, and meansresponsive to movement of said last means to said first position forpreventing operation of said reel stopping means during movement of thetension member in a windup direction on the reel.

2. A safety deviceas claimed in claim 1 wherein said means forpreventing operation of said reel stopping means comprises means forpreventing relative rotation between said reel and said inertia memberduring rotation in the wind-up direction.

3. A safety device as claimed in claim 2 wherein said last meanscomprises a locking dog pivotally mounted on the inertia member adaptedto move into a jamming position between the inertia member and the reelduring rotation in the wind-up direction.

4..A safety device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said reel-stoppingmeans includes a locking pawl and a rocker arm coupled to said reel andinertia member, said rocker arm being moved during relative rotationbetween the reel and inertia member to thereby cause said locking pawlto be released to lock said reel against further rotation in the unwinddirection, and means coupled to said reel operated during rotation ofthe reel in the Wind-up direction for preventing said rocker arm frommoving to release said locking pawl.

5. Safety apparatus adapted to be used on a moving vehicle, comprising,in combination, a tension member adapted to engage an occupant in thevehicle, resilient reel means connected to said tension member fornormally urging said reel to rotate in one direction to Wind up saidtension member, said reel rotating in the unwind direction responsive tooutward pulls on the tension member, whereby the occupant is allowedfreedom of motion, an inertia member rotatably mounted within saidsafety apparatus and coupled to said reel means, said inertia memberrotating in unison with said reel during rotation thereof in the unwinddirection below a predetermined acceleration, locking means, saidinertia member being operable by inertia to cause said locking means tolock said tension member positively against further movement outwardlyfrom said reel when said tension member is pulled outwardly at a rateexceeding a predetermined acceleration due to forces tending to dislodgethe occupant, means in said safety apparatus operable to one position inresponse to movement of the tension member in a wind'up direction on thereel and to a second position in response to movement of the tensionmember in an unwind direction from the reel, and means responsive tomovement of said last means to said first position for preventingoperation of said reel locking means during rotation of the reel in thewind-up direction.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,845,234 Cushman et al July 29, 1958

